Garber set in 'Stone' for ABC drama

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Victor Garber has been tapped to star opposite Jonny Lee Miller in ABC's drama pilot "Eli Stone," while Natasha Richardson has landed one of the two leads in NBC's comedy pilot "The Mastersons of Manhattan."

"Eli," produced by Touchstone Television and studio-based Berlanti Tele-vision, is a high-concept legal drama about Eli Stone (Miller), a brilliant attorney at the top law firm in San Francisco who finds out he might be a prophet.

Garber will play the senior partner at the firm, the most respected attorney in town and the father of Stone's fiancee.

Casting for the role had been going on for several months, and ABC and Touchstone TV are said to have jumped at the opportunity to recruit Garber when he became available following the November cancellation of his Fox/Warner Bros. TV freshman drama "Justice."

For five seasons, Garber starred as Jack Bristow on ABC's spy drama "Alias," a role that earned him three Emmy nominations. He is repped by the Gersh Agency.

"Manhattan" hails from NBC Universal TV Studio. Veteran comedy director James Burrows is directing the pilot, a serialized comedic soap opera revolving around two sisters, one of them played by Richardson, in a socially prominent family in New York.

Richardson, whose feature credits include "Maid in Manhattan" and "Asylum," next appears in "Evening." She is repped by CAA.